Paper Machete Group Inc Nfp

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
274561505
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2021–2025
Forms available
Form 990-EZ 2025, Form 990-N 2018
Location
Chicago, IL, USA
Phone
4043751046
Rating
93
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Moderate

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$81,611
Expenses
$108,187
Assets
$37,209
Liabilities
$2,000

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

4 people listed

People named in this filing

  • Christopher Piatt (Founder and Editor in Chiel)
  • J C Aevaliotis (Board Chair)
  • John Blick (Secretary)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Weekly live shows covering current events and pop culture. The shows feature essays from journalists, scholars, multi-disciplinary performers, and sometimes puppets. The show also includes comedy and sketches from Chicago comedians and touring performers as well as live music.

What it reported doing in 2025

52 weekly live shows. Here are some specific results from Machete shows in 2025: 1). 52 shows with an average weekly attendance of 151 for a total duplicated attendance of 4674. 2). We worked with 256 unduplicated artists (including 65 music acts). 3). We added 43 net new monthly donors, with an average monthly donation of $14 (total of ~150 active monthly donors at end of 2025).

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 94% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.

The verdict

STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 94
  • Transparency & Controls: 100
  • Sustainability: 18
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
  • Program expense ratio: 84.7%; rating input score 85

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -32.6%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.34; rating input score 25; 25th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 32.4%; rating input score 6; 6th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 42% per year; rating input score 100; 90th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 14.6% per year; rating input score 100; 86th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 11.9% per year; rating input score 100; 74th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 84.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $92K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 4 people listed
  • Consistency: 9 of 9 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 3 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 5 filing years from 2021 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
  • Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
  • People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 16/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 25/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 6/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 18/100.